Thursday, January 31, 2013

Today,
a mini-story that shows the mindset I have about retail employment and how I
want to save you the same erroneous train-of-thought.

I’ve
been employed at my current job for over five years now and each winter, it is
almost assured that the store will only be about ten degrees warmer than what
it is outside.Since I live in an area
where winters can get pretty damn cold, that is not a good thing.

There
are a number of reasons why this might occur, but the simplest one is because
of the giant sliding doors that never seem to remain shut.With each customer that comes stumbling
through our front doors – braving howling winds, torrential downpours, or
blinding snowfalls for a TV on sale for 10% – allows all the accumulated heat
to be zapped from the air.

Another
common reason why the temperatures indoors are so wacky is the fact that the
thermostat isn’t accurately adjusted from day-to-day.If there’s an unusually cold spring day, the A/C might still be
on, and there’s not much the store workers can do about it.By the time anything is fixed and you notice
the difference, most of the day is already done with.The reverse is true in the winter.A working A/C and heating unit is almost useless in a large
retail building that is as open as most electronics stores.

This,
finally, gets to my mini-story.Each
year, most employees, knowing how cold the store can be during winter, start to
wear long-sleeved undershirts below their work uniforms.Smart, huh?Yeah, I thought so, too.

However,
the first year I worked at my job, I had only short-sleeved shirts.Outside of work I never really needed
long-sleeved undershirts.I mean, if I
was cold outside of work, I always had hoodies or jackets or I just wrapped
myself up in blankets.The first time I
experienced how cold it could get in my store during the winter, I suppose I
should’ve gone right out and purchased a pack of undershirts.Ah, but that’s when my superior intellect
kicked in.

I
started thinking to myself, “Hey, you don’t plan on working here for more than
a year.Why waste your money on shirts
you’ll never wear again?Just tough it
out!It’s not that bad, after
all.”

That’s
how I spent my first winter there.

Then
there was a second.

Then
a third.

Then
a fourth.

And
so on and so on.

You
would think that by the second year, I would have just decided to say, “fuck
it!” and by myself a pack of long-sleeved shirts.Well, let me tell you, my friend, you are completely mistaken.

Each
year I kept thinking, “Well, this is my last year here.I’m definitely not working here for
another year.I made it this far,
after all, I might as well just stick it out until warm weather returns.”

So, yes, super genius that I am, I have been freezing
myself out on an annual basis on the misguided and self-delusional belief that
I’ll finally be out of my job.I guess
the moral of this story is, if keeping yourself warm or dry or safe is ever a
matter of a few dollars – even if you think you’re not going to be there for
very long – just spend the damn money.Or risk being as foolish as a man who decides to freeze himself to death
for a one-year-only job that turns into a 5-year-plus job.Just a little piece of free advice.

About Me

A 30-something-year-old who has spent most of my life in retail. In all that time, I've amassed quite a bit of observations on people who shop at, or work for, retail companies. I've been watching and taking notes, people.